Queensland scientists have reared more than 1,000 jungle perch fingerlings in captivity at the Bribie Island Research Centre.

Research leader Dr Michael Hutchison said the jungle perch research project focused on the potential for recovery of declining jungle perch populations.

“More than 1,000 jungle perch fingerlings have been produced at the Bribie Island Research Centre in the 2014 spawning season,” Dr Hutchison said.

“This is an important milestone in the research program, which will move into the next phase involving an experimental release of fingerlings.

“We are planning to release jungle perch into a freshwater creek system in spring and also aiming to produce more fingerlings in the summer months for reintroduction to other sites.”

Dr Hutchison said the research has led to more reliable fingerling production and is great news for the sustainability of the species and for recreational fishers.

“The 35mm fingerlings have been reared from fertilised eggs through to a size suitable for stocking into rivers over a period of 60 days,” he said.

“Areas selected for reintroduction will be streams that historically would have had jungle perch, but from which they have disappeared for 30 or 40 years.

“If jungle perch do re-establish breeding populations this will be a good indicator of stocking success.”

The Queensland Government research on jungle perch is being supported by the Australian Government Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. Project partners are James Cook University and the Freshwater Fishing and Stocking Association of Queensland.